The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated on Tuesday a crude oil inventory draw of 1.247 million barrels for the week ending March 21, capturing the period before over half of all Americans went into lockdown mode this week-a development that will surely curb the appetite for oil.
Today's inventory move was expected to be for a build of 2.774-million-barrels.
In the previous week, the API estimated a surprise draw in crude oil inventories of 421,000 barrels, while the EIA's estimates were more bearish, reporting a build of 2.0 million barrels for the week.
Oil prices were trading up on Tuesday afternoon prior to the API's data release on new hopes that a stimulus package would be passed and that the oil price war will come to an end with the US intervening.
At 4:29 pm EDT on Tuesday the WTI benchmark was trading up on the day by $0.75 (+3.21%) at $24.11-down nearly $4 week on week. The price of a Brent barrel was also trading up on Tuesday, by $0.57 (+1.95%), at $29.86-down by roughly $2 week on week.
The API reported a large draw of 2.622 million barrels of gasoline for week ending March 20, after last week's 7.834-million-barrel draw. This week's draw compares to analyst expectations for a 657,000-barrel draw for the week.
Distillate inventories were also down, by 1.90 million barrels for the week, compared to last week's 3.625-million-barrel draw, while Cushing inventories rose by 1.066 million barrels.
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US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration showed that production for the week ending March 13 resumed its all-time high of 13.1 million bpd.
At 4:39 pm EDT, WTI was trading at $24.09 while Brent was trading at $29.90.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More
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